Chapter 43: Seal of the Sages
When the dark comes rising, six shall turn it back.
~Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising Sequence
No sooner had Link and Zelda entered the ruins of the castle than the light emanating from the Triforce of Power on Ganon's hand turned blue-white and exploded through his whole body. His limbs and torso swelled and became deformed, arms and legs lengthening to absurd proportions. His form was no longer human; instead, he had a tail, tusks protruding from his cheeks, and a snout like a pig's in place of his nostrils. In size alone, he had outgrown his body many times before the change was complete. He stood before them a monster, a manifestation of the evil he had become.
"There's no way he's holding me back again," Navi said. "This time, we fight together!"
Link couldn't help but smile. "Thank you, Navi." He quickly turned to Zelda. "I only have one sword, but…"
With characteristic grace, she slipped the bow and quiver from his back and fitted an arrow to the string. "In case we don't get another chance," she said. Then, to his surprise, she kissed him.
He flushed but had no time to respond before they were both in motion. Navi shouted a warning, but they had already seen what was coming at them from the corners of their eyes. The monstrosity that was Ganon had produced a pair of swords almost as large as its body and stomped forward to attack.
They avoided the first swing by simply diving out of the way. The two blades passed over their heads as they lay on their backs. When they rolled to their feet, they saw that they had been separated by a good six meters.
All three Triforces were now aflame. From a distance, they heard the Knights and some of the Gerudos exclaiming at the close call. Though Navi tried to distract the monster by throwing herself at its face or nostrils, its attention was so focused on Link and Zelda that even her most violent exertions failed her.
"Link, the tail!" Zelda's voice carried over Pig-Ganon's screams as it crushed a piece of the central tower with its feet. She loosed an Arrow of Light at its face, hitting the nose. A fount of sparks erupted from the wound, and the tail fell stiffly to the ground.
Link leapt from a chunk of stone and stabbed downward into the tail with the Master Sword. This brought on screams louder and more furious, but he yanked the sword out in a spurt of crimson and stabbed again. The monster jerked so suddenly that he fell away barely holding onto the hilt.
Since Link and Zelda had taken up positions on either side of it, the monster had some difficulty responding to both at once, but with his attack on its tail, Link had become the primary target. Twisting its enormous bulk to face him, it slashed down at his small body, and he, dazed from his fall, unthinkingly raised his sword to parry. The monster's blade flung his to the edge of the ruins so that a few more inches would have sent it into the magma below.
That was the first time they noticed the flames. While Ganon had been transforming into his present shape, a chain of fire had risen around the ruins, cutting off entrance and escape alike. The Master Sword lay just outside it.
Link held out a hand as if he could stop Zelda from rushing toward the flames. He tried to chase her, but the sword had fallen on her side of the ruins, and she paid him no heed, anyway. Her dress flapping as she ran, she threw down the bow, skidded through the flames, and snapped up the Master Sword, scorching her right hand in the process.
Before he could breathe, she hurled the sword back through the flames in his general direction; he managed to pick it up just as Pig-Ganon reached the edge of the ruins and hacked downwards.
The only thing the monster cleaved was thin air. Zelda had slid beneath the gigantic blade, burning her dress this time as she passed through the fire. She regained the bow and had almost brought her second Arrow of Light to bear when the tail crashed into her, catapulting her through the air and into another piece of the central tower. She slumped to the ground, bleeding from the mouth.
Link screamed and darted forward, chopping at the monster's feet. Though it did little damage, he did succeed in warding off a follow-up attack on Zelda. Diving through its legs and back again, he cut at the monster several more times while it stomped around and struggled to get a clear view of him.
"Link…" Somehow, weak as it was, he heard Zelda's voice calling him over the roar of the flames. Immediately, he turned and saw what she wanted, kicked the bow into her arms, and dodged another titanic foot before it could crush him.
Moments later, a Light Arrow pierced the monster's neck as it was raising its arms to bring down another blow with the two swords. The same golden sparks spouted from the point of impact, and the same screams echoed when Link found purchase in the flesh of the monster's tail with the Master Sword. More blood flowed.
Mad with its injuries, Pig-Ganon no longer sought for perfect aim, but swung its arms back and forth, launching bricks and other debris in every direction. Link evaded most of it, but two bricks hit him—one in the back, the other on his fractured elbow—as he ran to shield Zelda.
He froze, whipping his gaze from side to side. Zelda had vanished. At the same time, he realized that something had brought the monster to a halt. With growing trepidation, he turned to see what it was.
Zelda, steadying herself against a tusk, had called up Farore's Wind once more and ridden it onto Pig-Ganon's head. The magic had clearly exhausted her, but with a deep breath and a cry to Nayru, Goddess of Wisdom, she shot the last shaft, and the Arrow of Light sank into the monster's left eye up to the fletching.
This time, the light nearly blinded them. With a scream, Zelda tumbled to the ground, eight feet below. Too far away to catch her, Link seized the opportunity she had bought him to sever the monster's tail completely. A fountain of crimson washed over him, so that it appeared as if he had donned the tunic he had worn in the Fire Temple. Spluttering, he stumbled over to where Zelda had fallen, only to find her a step ahead of him.
Standing three meters back with her neck bent slightly forward, she pressed her hands toward Ganondorf, and seven golden rays of light splayed out from her palms, touching him as he lay helpless amidst the ruins.
"I can hold him back," she said, "but not for long. It is time. Use the Master Sword to deliver the final blow!"
It was all like a dream now. The Master Sword had begun to glow with an unearthly light, and Link stared at it as if seeing it for the first time. But the moment pressed in on him, the moment he had spent more than seven years of his life for, the moment his mother and so many others had paid for in blood.
He heard Navi screeching at him. "Now, Link!"
Ganondorf watched Link's sword flash downward. He felt its holy bite pierce his flesh again and again, bleeding him cheek and nose and forehead until his blood covered all three of them: Power, Wisdom, and Courage. With each up-and-down of the Hero's arm, the monster's breath became more ragged; Ganon cursed the form he had taken and sought even now to change it again.
It was too late, of course. Zelda's hold on him, along with the overwhelming strength of the Master Sword, barred him from everything except his thoughts.
They don't know how irrevocable a gift the gods gave when they gave me the Triforce of Power.
He gasped as the Hero slowed long enough for him to grab a last breath. "I'll never let go of it," he said. "If this is truly the power of gods, let them take it from me themselves, if they can."
He had spoken these words aloud, but to the others, they came out as a series of hoarse and unintelligible grunts.
Out of breath, Link thrust the Master Sword through the bridge of Ganondorf's nostrils and did not pull it out again until the blade had entered to half of its length.
In spite of her injuries, Zelda's voice rose with terrible force. "Six Sages…now!"
"Ancient Creators of Hyrule!" Rauru's hands are pressed together in supplication. "Now, open the sealed door and send the Incarnation of Darkness into the void of the Evil Realm!"
Around him, each of the Six adds the force of their prayers to his, and the Light grows. The blue platform they are standing on is swallowed in an oval of white. The door to Hyrule is open.
A chill went down Link's spine when he saw the portal open underneath Ganon. He feared it no less knowing it wasn't meant for him. The force of it was like a cyclone dragging the monster's body downward, and before another minute had gone by, Ganon had disappeared from their sight altogether, along with the portal itself.
In Hyrule, an awful stillness remained, but they could almost hear his voice ringing in their heads as he passed from one realm to the next. "Curse you, Zelda, Sages, Link! Someday, when this seal is broken, I will exterminate your descendants. As long as the Triforce of Power is in my hand…"
The voice was suddenly cut off.
By now, none of the changes and additions to the story should be too surprising, so I don't feel it's necessary to comment on those at this stage. However, please feel free to PM me with any questions you have about some particular point.
With the climax of the story now past us, we have two more chapters to go plus a brief epilogue. So the next update will probably be the last.
Someone asked me in the reviews if I'd like to see this as a movie. Is Navi annoying? Is Death Mountain Crater hot? Do Deku Nuts make a blinding flash when they explode? Do I dream of meeting Princess Zelda in person someday? YES, YES, YES, and YES. Still, I'd be pretty content if someone at Nintendo just gave this a second chance as a BOOK first. A film would be awesome as long as it was done right, but the book is what I spent so much time on, so I'll settle for that right now ;-).
I'll have plenty more to say in the afterword, so please look forward to it in the next week or two!